


The Captain, The Sailor, The Kraken

by pitypartyof1



Series: Liquored Up [2]
Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: Alcohol, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Angst with a Happy Ending, M/M, Minor Violence, Rum, drunk!luke, sober!calum
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-13
Updated: 2018-05-13
Packaged: 2019-05-06 09:25:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14638929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pitypartyof1/pseuds/pitypartyof1
Summary: "It’s fucking hot, the bar open to a small courtyard. Rum is heavy on his tongue and Luke is absolutely trashed. He can feel his hair matted to his head with sweat. Long legs tangling underneath him as he attempts to make his way back from the restroom, he crashes to the side, talking a good few barstools with him. He erupts into giggles as the people around him stare. The feeling of his shirt beginning to stick to the grimy floor beneath him only spurs him on to laugh harder."





	The Captain, The Sailor, The Kraken

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave me comments. They make me very, very happy!

It’s fucking hot, the bar open to a small courtyard. Rum is heavy on his tongue and Luke is absolutely trashed. He can feel his hair matted to his head with sweat. Long legs tangling underneath him as he attempts to make his way back from the restroom, he crashes to the side, talking a good few barstools with him. He erupts into giggles as the people around him stare. The feeling of his shirt beginning to stick to the grimy floor beneath him only spurs him on to laugh harder.

A surprising and rough grip on his bicep yanks him back into a sitting position and Luke yelps. Calum’s face swims before him. He’s crouched down on Luke’s level and glaring right at him, angry as hell.

“Where the _fuck_ have you been?”

Scratch that previous thought. Calum’s not angry, he’s furious. The words are seething and Luke flinches a little before brightening again. Brushing Calum’s grip off, he pulls himself up unsteadily.

“’S a’matter, babe?” Throwing his arms wide, he gestures around himself. “’S a par _tay_! Loos’n up!” The giggles overtake him again and he collapses against the bar to hold himself up.

Calum steps into his space, right up in his face, features stony. “What the fuck is wrong with you, Luke? Look at you, you’re fucking wasted. Do you even know where you are?”

It gives Luke pause and he has to think hard for a moment, face screwing up in concentration before it comes to him. Letting out a whoop, he cheers, “VEGAS!” Throwing his arms up in victory, he immediately overbalances and hits the floor a second time.

Calum squats down again and Luke smiles proudly at him, expecting a kiss.

“You’re a fucking asswipe, you know that?” he whispers instead.

Luke frowns. “Wha’?”

“You left three fucking days ago, Luke. No one knew where you went. All your shit was still at home,” the bassist hisses. “I bet _you_ don’t even remember how you got here!”

Calum pauses to gulp a lungful of air and Luke knows how thin the ice he’s on is, regardless of how rum drunk he is. He’s sweating profusely and it’s not from the heat anymore. Calum has the look of a viper as he pins Luke with his gaze again.

“Do you know how worried we’ve, _I’ve_ , been? Fuck, Luke, I had to track you down using photos fans have posted of you chugging Captain and Cokes online.”

Luke’s eyes are the size of dinner plates. In the face of Calum’s anger, his whole mind’s gone blank. The only thing he can think to say is perhaps the worst thing to say in his current situation but his filter is nonexistent.

“Wasn’ Captain,” he slurs, “’s Sailor Jerry’s.”

He has half a second to register the angry flush rising in the bassist’s face, a sort of plum color, before Calum hauls back and clocks him. The punch lands squarely on his jaw and sends Luke reeling back. Some hidden, slightly sober part of his brain knows he had it coming. Red spots pop in front of him, his vision swims, and Calum’s screaming somewhere out of sight.

“ – THINK THIS IS FUNNY? WANNA MAKE ANOTHER FUCKING – ”

The alcohol is swirling and roiling in Luke’s gut and the pounding in his head from the hit is only increasing his dizziness. He rolls to his side as his stomach gives an almighty lurch.

Luke vomits on the floor, heave after heave wracking his body as he purges himself. All he’s had is rum, barely eating at all to stay drunk. Despite the lack of anything in his stomach, he can’t seem to stop until bile’s all that’s left and it burns. He feels fingers pulling his hair back, rubbing soothing circles into his back. It’s Calum, he knows it is, despite his anger a moment before.

When his belly finally finishes emptying itself, Calum helps him sit up, hugging him tightly. He’s crying, Luke notices belatedly, Calum’s crying, sobbing apologies, and Luke didn’t realize it was possible to feel worse. Calum almost never cries and he certainly shouldn’t apologize. Luke think’s he’d punch himself too if he were his boyfriend.

After a few moments Calum pulls back, having gotten himself mostly under control. Luke feels his own tears bubbling toward the surface as he takes in the streaks painting Calum’s cheeks.

“Don’t move, Lu, ‘m gonna take care of this and get you out of here, I promise.”

Luke nods dumbly and watches him dart away up to the counter. No doubt to pay for his bill and the mess he’s made. Pulling his knees up, he hugs them to his chest as his stomach clenches and cramps. He doesn’t think he’s going to puke anymore though, he just feels miserable.

When Calum returns to retrieve him, he has to help Luke stand. He feels as if his legs have given up on him and he honestly won’t be surprised if everyone else isn’t far behind.

“’M so sorry,” he whimpers into Calum’s shoulder as the other boy half carries him toward the exit.

“Me too,” Calum whispers lowly, “me too.”

Luke can feel him square himself under Luke’s weight as they approach Calum’s vehicle. He does his very best to get in without making the bassist work too hard to help him. Calum does insist on buckling him in, however, and Luke wants to smile, he really does, but can’t quite seem to make his mouth work right.

Pulling out into traffic, Calum flips the radio on to something soothing at a low volume and Luke trembles. He has no idea where they’re headed and can’t seem to bring himself to care. Though he does hope Calum’s not driving him all the way back to LA right now. He doesn’t think he can face it yet.

All the worst things he feels about himself are bubbling up inside him and his eyes burn as tears slip hot down his cheeks. He hiccups softly and sees as Calum turns to look at him in his periphery. “Why am I like this,” he chokes wetly.

Calum’s warm fingers wrap around his own, squeezing vicelike and Luke has to turn his face away, feels naked and ashamed having Calum see him this low, and he knows he’s _low_. Normal people don’t run away from their lives and go on three-day benders in Vegas. People who are _okay_ don’t skip out on their boyfriend and need to be tracked down through drunk pictures on the internet. The worst part is that Calum had been right before, Luke didn’t know how he’d even gotten to Vegas, has no memory of deciding to go.

He can hear the tears in Calum’s voice when he says he doesn’t know and hates himself just a little bit more for making him cry again.

 

Everything else is a blur until he wakes up in a hotel bed the next morning. The spot next to him is warm but empty. His stomach, unsurprisingly, roils immediately and he lunges over the side of the bed, thankful to see a trashcan staring back at him.

A few weak splatters later, he collapses back onto his back staring at the ceiling through slit eyes. Every part of his body hurts and even he knows he’s probably still a little drunk. Shame courses through him with a renewed vengeance as the events of the day before flood back to him. Tentative fingers prod the fully blossomed bruise on his jaw and his eyes squeeze shut as he remembers the fear and worry on Calum’s face transforming to anger as he’d made some stupid joke about the type of rum he’d been drinking when Calum thought he’d been _missing._

Thirsting for a healthy dose of masochism, he snags his phone and pulls up google, tracking himself through the same photos Calum must have used to find him. There are even photos of him on the ground vomiting with Calum crouched over him now.

Furiously, he locks the phone disgusted with himself.

“Not very pretty is it?”

Calum’s voice startles him and Luke spins around far too quickly for someone in his state and turns mildly green for a moment until he manages to fight back the nausea. He doesn’t have an answer and it doesn’t appear as if Calum is expecting one. Instead he holds out a cup of coffee and a shopping bag containing water and ibuprofen.

Luke’s hands shake as he accepts them. He’s quick to break into the pain killers, swallowing two down dry. “Thank you,” he murmurs, grimacing at the flare in his jaw with the movement.

Calum’s touch is soft as his fingers trail over the bruise as well. “I’m sorry for this,” he whispers, “I had so many emotions in me. I was so scared, worried and heartbroken and you made a joke like it didn’t even matter what I’d been through. I should never have hit you though, that will never be right.”

Luke shakes his head as forcefully as his can without aggravating his dizziness. “No,” he hums, attempting to move his injured jaw as little as possible. “Don’t apologize, please, Cal. I really had it coming after what I’ve done to you.”

Calum’s eyes burn for a moment before he sighs and sinks onto the bed beside Luke. “Lu,” he begins and Luke can feel his heart drop. “I can’t do this with you anymore. Not the way things are. If you want to get help, I’ll be right here, right beside you, I’ll stay. But if you can’t see you need help, I won’t stay to watch you drink yourself to death. I won’t do this anymore. You need to get sober.”

He’s not meeting Luke’s eyes and it’s as if he’s afraid of what he’s going to see there. Luke’s throat is suddenly tight and he reaches blindly for the water Calum’d brought him, the rustling of the bag shattering the tense silence. Suddenly it's like he can’t breathe and he doesn’t realize he’s sobbing in a panic attack until he’s dropped the water and Calum’s cradling him to his chest.

“I know,” he chokes, face buried in the worn fabric of the t-shit Calum stole from Michael on the last tour. “I know I need help. Please, Cal, I don’t know what to do. I d-don’t know how this happened to me.”

“There is _nothing_ wrong with you, you hear me?” The strength in Calum’s voice is obviously hard fought and Luke loves him even more for it. “You are not the only one, Luke. So many people struggle with alcohol, but it’s up to you to decide if you want help. Do you want help?”

In all his life, Luke never thought it would be so hard to find the will to say a single word. It takes every fiber of strength in him to steel himself and force himself to admit what he’s known for a while. “I have a problem,” he breaths “I want help, Cal. Please help me do this.”

He’s not expecting the deep and loving kiss that Calum bestows upon him. He’s not expecting his boyfriend to brush his curls back and cup his cheeks, staring into his eyes.

“I’m so proud of you, Luke. We’re going to get through this together. We’ll go home, we’ll talk to management, and we’ll discuss options. There are options, you don’t have to go away, alright? Only if that’s what you want to do.”

He pulls Luke down to lay beside him and Luke immediately curls into his warmth, shaking as if he’s just jumped into a frozen river naked.

“I’m scared,” he admits in an undertone.

Calum’s fingers stroke his spine and gently kiss his hair. “I am too,” he confesses, “but I still have you, you still have me. We’re gonna make it.”

And in that moment, Luke chooses to believe him, chooses to grab onto that thin thread of hope and hang on for dear life. He trusts Calum with every part of his soul and if Calum says he’ll make it, it’s got to be true.

“If I kick this,” he whispers, voice cracking, “if I do, will you marry me?”

“Yeah, Lu. You will kick this, and I’m gonna marry you.”

They fall asleep like that, curled together and apprehensive about the future but still ready to take it on together, for the highs and the lows.

 

 

Luke learns that there’s strength in weakness. Sometimes admitting you need help and relinquishing control is the strongest thing a person can do.

Calum learns you don’t give up on the people you love when they’re asking you for help. Supporting people is hard work, but it’s what we do for love.

Their wedding colors are a bright gold and sky blue and while everyone else toasts with champagne, Luke and Calum use sparkling apple juice.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave me comments. They make me very, very happy!


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